Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Aha of Shabcha

(Encyclopedia)Aha of Shabcha äˈkhī [key], c.680–c.762, Babylonian rabbi. He settled (c.752) in Palestine after being passed over for appointment as head of the rabbinic academy of Pumbedita for political reaso...

Bork, Robert Heron

(Encyclopedia)Bork, Robert Heron, 1927–2012, American jurist, b. Pittsburgh. He received his law degree from the Univ. of Chicago in 1953, and was professor of law at Yale (1962–73, 1977–81). While serving as...

Bradley, Bill

(Encyclopedia)Bradley, Bill (William Warren Bradley), 1943–, American athlete and politician, b. Crystal City, Mo. He first gained wide attention as an All-America basketball player at Princeton. Graduating in 19...

Izmir

(Encyclopedia)Izmir smûrˈnə [key], city, capital of Izmir prov., W Turkey, on the Gulf of Izmir, an arm ...

Kondouriotis, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Kondouriotis, Paul kôndo͞oryôˈtĭs [key], 1857–1935, Greek admiral and statesman. He became a national hero through his victories over the Turkish fleet in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and in t...

Ventris, Michael George Francis

(Encyclopedia)Ventris, Michael George Francis, 1922–56, English linguist. Ventris was a student of architecture, but he became interested in the untranslated Mycenaean scripts, particularly Linear B, which was fo...

Clytemnestra

(Encyclopedia)Clytemnestra klīˌtəmnĕsˈtrə [key], in Greek mythology, the daughter of Leda and Tyndareus. Homer described her as the noble-minded wife of Agamemnon, persuaded to infidelity by the tyrant Aegist...

Apollonia

(Encyclopedia)Apollonia ăpəlōˈnēə [key] [Gr.,=of Apollo], name of several ancient Greek towns. The most important was a port in Illyria on the Adriatic. It was founded by Corinthians and was later a Greek and...

Hecate

(Encyclopedia)Hecate hĕkˈətē, hĕkˈĭt [key], in Greek religion and mythology, goddess of ghosts and witchcraft. Originally she seems to have been an extremely powerful and benevolent goddess, identified with ...

Bourbaki, Charles Denis Sauter

(Encyclopedia)Bourbaki, Charles Denis Sauter shärl dənēˈ sōtāˈ bo͞orbäkēˈ [key], 1816–97, French general of Greek ancestry. In the Algerian campaigns and the Crimean War he gained one of the highest mi...

Browse by Subject